WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission last month voted to require wireless phone companies and certain messaging services to allow customers to send emergency text messages to 911 by the end of the year.

But the service won’t be available in Oregon anytime soon, because network upgrades are necessary before emergency call centers can properly process text messages, said Steve Reinke, the director of Deschutes County 911.

“We’re going to be relying on the state 911 center to get the infrastructure” upgrades needed, he said.

The four largest wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon — have entered into voluntary agreements to allow their customers to text directly to 911. However, emergency dispatchers in 122 out America’s 3,144 counties have the capacity to receive and respond to text messages.

Many of those are in Vermont and Maine, which have installed statewide programs. Two counties in the Western U.S. — one each in Colorado and Montana — can receive texts to 911, according to the FCC.

Proponents of texting to 911 maintain it would be a boon to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, who wouldn’t need special software or devices to relay information. Additionally, it would potentially be useful in domestic violence situations, where the victim could ask for help from law enforcement without alerting his or her assailant.

Reinke worries that without the additional context a conversation provides — such as a caller’s tone and inflection, or background noise — dispatchers won’t be able to provide as much vital information to emergency responders.

“You don’t get that over a text,” he said.

Dispatchers are trained to ask follow-up questions that quickly assess emergency situations, he said.

Even if a dispatcher were to receive a text via 911, the first question would be, “Are you able to receive a phone call?” Reinke said.

Officials with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management’s 911 program could not be reached Thursday.

Currently, Oregon’s emergency call centers, known as Public Safety Answering Points, are not equipped to process incoming text messages. Part of the problem is the call centers are not set up to receive confirmation that a text went through, Reinke said, which makes it difficult to create timelines of interactions.

These are essential, not only because they create a record of the incident, but also because they help emergency officials evaluate how efficiently they handle each contact, he said.

While technologists envision sending photos or videos — say, of a car leaving a hit-and-run — this information still needs a human to answer questions and provide context, he said.

Reinke said he could see the benefits of being able to text 911, but he wouldn’t want to institute it until he was confident it would work well.

In areas that do not support texting to 911, mobile providers are required to send automatic replies to texts to 911, telling users their texts did not go through.

To demonstrate, Reinke texted to 911 with his cellphone, which uses AT&T.

Immediately, the response came back: “Make a voice call to 911, texts to 911 is not available.”

— Reporter: 202-662-7456, aclevenger@bendbulletin.com